There was once a movie that said "Soilent Green" is people. In the dystopic future, people were being tricked and treated like cows being fattened through cannibalism. Now it has become a reality as Chinese scientists develop a gelatin (the stuff in marshmallows and jello, which is normally made out of boil feet of cloven hoofed animals).A press release from the American Chemical Society for a study just off the press in which a quartet of Beijing researchers produce human-derived gelatin. Will it be put on the market secretly the way cloned meat, pesticide-laden vegetables and frankenfruit, and irradiated (enzyme destroyed foods exposed to radiation)?
Most gelatin -- hidden in many items as a stiffener or binder including cheap vitamins, cheeses, candies, soaps, desserts, cosmetics -- comes from the waste products of slaughtered animals: nails, bones, skin (collagen) broken down into protein strands that form a gel. There is, of course, a small risk of bovine encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease).
Wouldn't human cells be so much easier and cheaper, with the added benefit of, well, cannibalism?
- Stay Puft Marshmallows made of Human (Boston.com)
- New method for making human-based gelatin
- Chinese scientists "reprogram" cells to create mice (WSJ)
- British scientists admit to creating human-animal creatures
- Hybrid human-animal DNA experiments raise concerns
- Medical vivisection: torturing pigs to cure humans?
- First lady teams with grocers to provide healthy food access
We may not have to rely on boiled pig bones for our gelatin forever. The solution may not be any more appetizing... Gelatin is found in everything from Jell-O and marshmallows to cosmetics and candles. But the current method of taking gelatin from the skin and bones of cows and pigs has... the potential for transmitting infectious diseases like Mad Cow and the possibility of triggering immune system responses in humans.... though the newest option -- human derived gelatin -- isn't too appetizing.